EIAs offer a chance for communities to voice their opinions about the development projects that will affect their lives and environment, but the process is often unclear and obscured by complex laws and regulations. ERI uses this video in community-level trainings to help those affected by development projects expand their legal knowledge. The video focuses on stories from the Kaeng Sua Ten communities in Thailand and their thirty-year struggle to defend the country’s last golden teak forest from flooding by hydropower projects. Using this case study, communities and advocates in Thailand share lessons and help to explain the EIA process. Based on these lessons, earth rights activists across Southeast Asia and elsewhere can better assert their rights under environmental law.
“To determine their own future, communities must understand the proposed project… communities can then design their own campaigns to achieve their goals.” – Participant in an ERI EIA training program in Thailand
